Op­po­si­tion Leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, has ex­pressed her sup­port for Turkey and Syr­ia in the af­ter­math of earth­quakes of mag­ni­tude 7.8 strikes that top­pled thou­sands of build­ings across both coun­tries on Mon­day. 

"I am deeply sad­dened by the dev­as­tat­ing loss of lives in Turkey and Syr­ia fol­low­ing the earth­quakes that struck both coun­tries," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in a state­ment. 

She went fur­ther in say­ing, "Many Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans have an an­ces­tral bond with both Syr­ia and Turkey and may have rel­a­tives af­fect­ed by this tragedy. I wish to ex­press my love, sym­pa­thy and sup­port to our Turk­ish and Syr­i­an com­mu­ni­ties in this time of cri­sis." 

Turk­ish au­thor­i­ties have con­firmed 1,762 deaths, with an­oth­er 968 re­port­ed in Syr­ia, af­ter pow­er­ful earth­quakes brought thou­sands of build­ings crash­ing down in both coun­tries. At least 12,068 oth­ers have been in­jured in the quakes. 

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, "My deep­est con­do­lences to those who have lost loved ones in this dis­as­ter. I hope that the sur­vivors are found quick­ly and wish them a speedy re­cov­ery."